Following Jesus. Henry J.M. Nouwen. 2018. (Hardcover.)

Following Jesus. Henri J. M. Nouwen. 2018. 132 pages. (Hardcover.)  

To avoid getting stuck in a “thought silo” reading only books that share my basic outlook on life, I occasionally pick up one that I suspect before I start will be based on a premise that will not gel with mine. That was the case with this short treatise. Such endeavours to understand and appreciate the perspective of others cannot harm if one is secure in your own views. But in this one there was no underlying premise whatsoever. 

It seems peculiar that this book based on six lectures by the author was first published in 2018, although the author died in 1996. The Dutch-borne itinerant, restless, American/Peruvian/Canadian Catholic priest could seemingly not enjoy working at Harvard Theological School for more than four months, returning to pastoral care, charities and writing.

C.S. Lewis, in his “The Problem of Pain” attempts to reconcile the existence an all powerful and all loving God with the universal cruelty, evil and pain of human and animal existence. This requires some fanciful linguistic definitions and gymnastic leaps of logic, but at least some attempts are made to argue rationally. Nouwen simply rejects logic as as valid starting point. Clearly rejecting logical thinking and favouring uninformed irrational actions, there is also an underlying current of anti-intellectualism. 

Even in the lecture on the unconditional love of God, Nouwen uses selective quotes from the Bible, neglecting to mention the inconsistency of an all-loving God who urges us to forgive our enemies, while killing off people who don’t love him in a flood or the fires of hell or Sodom and Gomorrah, in a fit of jealous anger. I don’t know which translation of the Bible Nouwen is using, but some quotes, such as of the Beatitudes seem foreign to me.

“Following Jesus” as the title advocates,  has been used as an excuse for the horrible cruelties in religious wars or lead to Jim Jones’ Jonestown or David Koresh’s  Branch Davidians in Waco. 

This book exceeded my expectations of providing an abundance of meaningless gobbledygook and linguistic licence such as “…there is no human being anywhere in the whole world who is not lifted up on the cross with Jesus.” or  “What you need to hear with your heart…” 

I persisted to the end hoping to find at least one quote worthy of some thought, but was disappointed even in that lowly quest. The best feature of this book is its brevity.

Lest I seem too down on all religions, I must confess to appreciating and even enjoying the works of some religious scholars. But Nouwen was no scholar, but a delusional brainwashed and probably lonely man

0/10

Thanks, but no thanks, Alan.